Great wine is made in the vineyard is the often-cited phrase in wine circles. As a winery owner, if you want to make those high-scoring wines that get swoons from critics, it’s all about investing in the best viticulture.
Matt Hardin, a seventh-generation vineyard manager, might be the man to help you cultivate the best grapes. His family was among the earliest pioneers of Napa Valley, arriving during the California gold rush, owning a 3,500-acre cattle ranch that was Napa’s oldest registered cattle brand. By the 1890s, the family started farming grapes and continue to this day.
“I live in this truly utopian agricultural world,” says Hardin, who several years ago started Hardin Vineyard Management after working a dozen years under his mentor, viticulturalist Jim Barbour. Hardin handles 40 vineyard properties, has 65 full-time employees and engages 350 people in the vineyards from the period of bud break to harvest. He farms under the tradition of responsible agriculture as “stewards of Napa Valley’s legacy, architects of its future.” He owns two planes—a Cessna 206 and a Piper J-3 Cub—to transport him to his many wine tastings.
“I plant vineyards with the right grape variety for the soil type and let the vineyard owner choose between sustainable, organic or biodynamic viticulture—the latter two cost thousands more per acre to farm,” Hardin explains. “I’ll bring in my team of field workers to do the viticulture on the vineyard all year long, but especially from spring until harvest.”
Hardin not only acts as the viticultural service but also as somewhat of consultancy on the entire winemaking process by introducing people to his vast Napa network. He often works with deep-pocketed career changers looking to invest in a Napa Valley second act. The region’s prime parcels, he’ll tell them, are in one of five AVAs: Oakville, Stags Leap District, Howell Mountain, St. Helena and Rutherford.
“We go soup to nuts with the clients, helping secure the lawyer to trademark the brand, designers to create the labels, brand ambassadors to promote the wines,” Hardin explains.
The 4 Winds Winery—a jewel box vineyard perched high above the Silverado Trail—is a property that Hardin worked on from scratch. He introduced the Chapin family to winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. “The Chapins are intent on making top wines from their impossibly rocky site,” he says.
“I’ve done the viticulture on Tom Seaver’s vineyard on Diamond Mountain in Calistoga and continue working with his wife, Nancy,” Hardin says. Hall of Famer Seaver pitched 20 seasons in Major League Baseball. “I also work the vineyard of Carmen Policy.” Policy was GM of the San Francisco 49ers, who took five Superbowl Championships.
“I work with successful people who want to master another field and seek intellectual involvement in developing a wine property,” he explains. Surely, it’s an investment that gives entry into a very elite club of winemakers.